Features Cron

Cron

Deskbrid's cron engine allows you to schedule actions to run at regular intervals. The cron engine reads from ~/.config/deskbrid/schedule.json and polls every 60 seconds for scheduled actions.

Overview

Scheduled actions are dispatched through the same pipeline as socket requests, meaning they have full access to all deskbrid capabilities. Each scheduled action has:

• A name for identification
• An interval in seconds
• An action type and parameters
• Optional enabled/disabled state

Schedule File

The schedule is stored in ~/.config/deskbrid/schedule.json as a JSON array of scheduled actions:

[
  {
    "name": "daily-backup",
    "interval_secs": 86400,
    "action_type": "windows.list",
    "action_params": {},
    "enabled": true
  }
]

Listing Scheduled Actions

deskbrid schedule.list

Response:

{
  "type": "response",
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "schedules": [
      {
        "name": "daily-backup",
        "interval_secs": 86400,
        "action_type": "windows.list",
        "action_params": {},
        "enabled": true,
        "last_run": "2026-05-29T02:00:00Z",
        "next_run": "2026-05-30T02:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "clipboard-history-cleanup",
        "interval_secs": 3600,
        "action_type": "clipboard.history.clear",
        "action_params": {},
        "enabled": true,
        "last_run": "2026-05-30T09:30:00Z",
        "next_run": "2026-05-30T10:30:00Z"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Adding a Scheduled Action

deskbrid schedule.add { 
  name: "hourly-screenshot", 
  interval_secs: 3600, 
  action_type: "screenshot", 
  action_params: { output_path: "/tmp/screenshot_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png" }, 
  enabled: true 
}

Parameters

• name: Identifier for the scheduled action (required)
• interval_secs: Interval in seconds between executions (required)
• action_type: The action to execute (see Protocol Overview)
• action_params: Parameters for the action (JSON object, optional)
• enabled: Boolean to enable/disable the scheduled action (default: true)

Removing a Scheduled Action

deskbrid schedule.remove { name: "hourly-screenshot" }

Examples

Daily Window List Backup

deskbrid schedule.add {
  name: "daily-windows-backup",
  interval_secs: 86400,
  action_type: "windows.list",
  action_params: {},
  enabled: true
}

This will run windows.list once per day and store the result (though currently the result is not saved - you'd need to modify this to save to a file or send elsewhere).

Hourly Clipboard History Cleanup

deskbrid schedule.add {
  name: "hourly-clipboard-cleanup",
  interval_secs: 3600,
  action_type: "clipboard.history.clear",
  action_params: {},
  enabled: true
}

This clears the clipboard history every hour.

Periodic System Info Logging

deskbrid schedule.add {
  name: "periodic-system-info",
  interval_secs: 300,  # Every 5 minutes
  action_type: "system.info",
  action_params: {},
  enabled: true
}

Regular Screenshot Capture

deskbrid schedule.add {
  name: "regular-screenshot",
  interval_secs: 1800,  # Every 30 minutes
  action_type: "screenshot",
  action_params: { 
    output_path: "/home/user/screenshots/deskbrid_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png" 
  },
  enabled: true
}

Python Example

from deskbrid import Deskbrid

client = Deskbrid()

# List schedules
schedules = client.schedule_list()
for schedule in schedules['schedules']:
    print(f"{schedule['name']}: every {schedule['interval_secs']}s ({'enabled' if schedule['enabled'] else 'disabled'})")

# Add a schedule
client.schedule_add(
    name="periodic-notify",
    interval_secs=3600,
    action_type="notification.send",
    action_params={"title": "Hourly", "body": "This is an hourly reminder"},
    enabled=True
)

# Remove a schedule
client.schedule_remove(name="periodic-notify")